Boatyard Bulletin

Being a commercial fisherman requires you to not just live in accordance to the tides, but the seasons as well.  Summer is for long days on the water making your season’s catch.  Spring is for to do lists that span the day, boat repairs, hanging nets, and swapping tales of winter with old friends in the boat yard. 

            This week I’m in Naknek starting to ready the boat for the upcoming salmon season.  Days are spent going through the mechanical systems on board and assessing what damage the harsh northern winter has done, replacing steering lines and motors and making sure I have everything I’ll need to for repairs when I’m out on the water for the season.  Nights are spent lying awake in excitement, thinking about the way the water looks alive with the jumping silver bodies of sockeye salmon when the run is at its peak.  Some nights, of course, are spent lying awake trying to remember if I ordered filters for the boat, or have enough corks to hang my fishing nets, but that is another story all together. 

            Soon now, we will be on the water, fishing late into the daylit night you only experience this close to the North Pole.  Soon, the sockeye will be rushing upstream as we line our nets along the muddy banks of these great rivers to try to catch them.  The water is brackish and cold, and although it moves quickly with the tides, I’ve never seen rivers so full of life.